Subscribe and join the conversation

OLPC Enters the "Post 1CC" Era

19 May 2008

As Wayan mentioned in his previous article this week marks a transition in OLPCnews's editorial team. After two years on the forefront of OLPCnews he is stepping down as the editor and passing the responsibility on to us: Bryan Berry of OLE Nepal and Christoph Derndorfer of OLPC Austria. We have both been involved in OLPCnews and the larger OLPC community for a long time and we are looking forward to closely working with the whole community on what we call the OLPCnews "refresh".

This is were OLPC is happening...

Over the past few weeks we have come to realize that the OLPC project has slowly transitioned into a new phase: the "Post-1CC Era" where most of the important action takes place outside of the OLPC Association's Headquarters located at 1 Cambridge Center "1CC" in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These days OLPC is really happening in the deployments, in local communities all around the world, at www.sugarlabs.org, and with other low-cost laptops. OLPC in Cambridge is now part of what has become a global movement of software developers, content creators, teachers, policy makers, OLPC lovers, OLPC haters, and many other people who are interested in the topics of education, ICT and sustainable development. The most interesting newsmakers are no longer Nicholas Negroponte and Walter Bender but the real kids and teachers involved in this project.

Bryan Berry

Thanks to Wayan's tireless efforts in the past two years OLPCnews is already a focal point of community discussion and interaction, a fact that became especially obvious over the past few weeks amidst all the turmoil of what's been happening. We want to take this approach to the next level by focusing even more on what's going on inside all the communities rather than the internal politics at 1CC. We will to provide an open forum for people to show off the projects that they're working on, whether it's a deployment in a local community, a new activity that you have written, a noteworthy piece of educational contents or whatever else comes to mind. To that end we will continue Wayan's "open door" policy by inviting you to contribute articles, regardless of opinion or background.

Christoph Derndorfer

On top of that OLPCnews has always been on the forefront of defining and discussing core challenges, problems, and solutions when it comes to developing, scaling, deploying, and supporting the OLPC project. With the unique opportunity of Bryan being closely involved in the ongoing pilots in Nepal we will be able to provide new insights and feedback into what really happens once children get their hands on the laptops. We're also discussing some ideas for new formats and features that we might introduce to the site in due time.

In the end we want to thank Wayan for his truly outstanding work, it's safe to say that neither we ourselves nor the larger community would be where we are today without his tireless commitment and his efforts. We look forward to working with him, you, our readers, and the global OLPC community on continuing this grande discussion about OLPC in the "post-1CC" era.

Sincerely,

Christoph Derndorfer and Bryan Berry

Not only are we "fresher" than Wayan, we are also far better looking. As our photos evidence.

Bryan and Christoph. Wish you the best as you take over the mantle from Wayan. Having worked closely with Bryan for the last 18 months, I have no doubt that OLPCnews will continue to provide a platform to share, agree, disagree, criticize, applaud various design, implementation, and pedagogical approaches. Only through open and free dialog and interaction can we expect end up with a robust and lasting solution.

I agree we are entering the post-1CC era. Olpc isn't dieing, it is multiplying, and the reason is the ideas behind it are so good that more organizations besides the olpc organization in Cambridge are adopting them.

As one of the no longer interesting newsmakers, I applaud this evolution of OLPC News. I'd like to recommend a subtle name change as well: olpc news, all lowercase. This would be a reflection of a focus on one-laptop-per-child endeavors rather than on One Laptop per Child, the association, which is how it should have been all along. The title subtext could change as well to reflect the broadening of the scope of this site.

BAM! Thats great news! I wish you all the best and love your "Post-1CC Era" approach!

As one of the OLPC Germany guys I met Christoph two times and think he is absolutely one of the guys who asks the right questions and sees the true potential.

After two months (of sunshine) in Ethiopia and half a year with OLPC at all I like the approach of OLE Nepal at most and looking forward to get in touch with you guys after coming back to Germany in 10 days.